tirupati l monday l november 30, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 28 l late city EDITION Expect harsher winter in the north, warns Met dept There is also a higher chance of cold wave this winter, the Indian Meteorological Department said on Sunday la nina blamed for abnormal chill Delhi to see coldest November in 10 yrs “Below normal minimum temperatures are likely over most subdivisions of north, northwest, central and few subdivisions over east India,” the IMD said in its winter forecast. It blamed it on the prevailing moderate La Nina conditions. La Nina happens when the surface water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean cools. This leads to a drop in global temperature ■ ■ Temperatures in several parts of north India, including Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan, were normal on Sunday Delhi is set to record its coldest November in 10 years. Average minimum temperature in the city from Nov 1 to 29 was 10 degree Celsius. The normal minimum for the month is 12 degrees Celsius 7 degrees Celsius was delhi’s minimum temperature on Sunday CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Liberal invoking of sedition law in BJP-ruled states Sana S h a k i l / R i t w i k a M i t r a @ New Delhi When the Bombay High Court last week berated the Mumbai Police for slapping sedition charges against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli, asking “if anybody doesn’t fall within the line of the government, will that be sedition,” it was only underlining the increasing trend of governments to misuse this colonial law. Data maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau, which started collating sedition numbers since 2014, shows that while there were 47 cases registered under Section 124A of the IPC (sedition) that year, it jumped to 93 in 2019, an increase of 98%. While 27 states or Union Territories had not registered a single sedition case in 2014, that number fell to 19 last year, indicating more state governments were willing to charge people under the stringent law. An analysis by this newspaper showed that BJP state governments invoked the law more than non-BJP ones. This is best illustrated by the experience in Karnataka, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir. The first two have BJP regimes while J&K is under Central rule. In all the three, there was a spike in sedition cases after they came under BJP rule. In 2019, Karnataka saw the maximum sedition cases ( 22), followed by Assam (17) and J&K (11). Under Congress rule in Karnataka, two cases were filed in 2018; three each in 2015 and 2016; and none in 2014 and 2017. Assam recorded 17 sedition cases each in two consecutive years of 2018 and 2019 — slightly lower than 2017 when it recorded 19 cases — the highest in the country for that Continued on: P7 year.  Numbers say it all  2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019 Jammu & Kashmir 0101  12  11 Punjab 01 0 000 Himachal Pradesh 101 501 Uttar Pradesh 006  1  0  10 Bihar  16  9  0  0  17  0 Haryana  0  3  12  13  1 2 Arunachal Pradesh 000 000 Assam 100  19  17  17 Nagaland Tripura  0  0 00 00 00 08 00 Delhi 002 011 Rajasthan 01 1 1 04 Manipur 01 00 4 1 Gujarat 020 00 Madhya Pradesh 002 111 Maharashtra 010 002 Goa 8.33% 0 0 0 Karnataka  0  3  3  0  2  22 Kerala 53394 Farmers reject govt proposal Say it came with strings; decide to block three more entry points into Delhi to choke it Ha r p r eet B a j w a @ Chandigarh Refusing to accept Union home minister Amit Shah’s offer to re-locate to the Burari grounds in north Delhi to begin the talks process, Punjab farmers on Sunday continued to say put on the Delhi border, attacking the proposal for having pre-conditions. While the far mers have parked themselves on the Singhu and Tikri borders, they decided to block three more entry points into Delhi —Ballabgarh, Daruhera and Hapur. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla wrote to the 32 protesting farmers’ unions in Hindi on Saturday citing the winter chill and the fear of a spike in Covid cases because of the massing, to persuade them to shift to Burari. Once they re-locate, a team of Union ministers would be ready to hold talks with them at Vigyan express read Winter Session of State Legislature from today Vijayawada: The Winter Session of the Legislative Assembly and Council, set to begin on Monday sans the Question Hour in view of Covid-19, is likely to be stormy. Issues such as revised Polavaram cost estimates are likely to be discussed | P4 Navy recovers debris of crashed fighter jet New Delhi: Indian Navy’s search and rescue teams on Sunday located the turbo charger, fuel tank and some other parts of the MiG-29K fighter aircraft that had crashed into the Arabian Sea on Thursday. One of the two pilots is still missing. Singhu Border Hapur Tikri Border delhi Daruhera Ballabgarh Farmers blocking the Singhu border in Delhi on Sunday | Parveen Negi Bhavan, the letter said, but it failed to get traction. Shah’s offer was unanimously rejected at a meeting of all 32 Punjab farmers unions at the Singhu border. “We are ready for talks, but the Union government should not impose UP police registers first case under new anti-conversion law in Bareilly N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district registered the first case under the state’s new anti-conversation law on Saturday, just hours after it was promulgated. It was on a complaint filed by a resident of Sharifnagar village, against a young man who allegedly tried to force his daughter to convert to Islam and marry him. The accused, complainant alleged, has been trying to “coerce, coax and allure” his daughter to convert to Islam and marry him. The accused is absconding. Sources said the girl used to frequently complain about the man. Initially, she tried to avoid him fearing disrepute. But when she consistently refused his advances, he threatened to abduct her. The harassment did not stop even after she got married in June. Things got ugly when the man visited the girl’s house on Saturday He pressed . her family to bring her back from her in-laws’ house. When they refused, he threatened to kill them. “He was not listening to us, and was mounting Jharkhand  18  0  0  1  18  3 Odisha 201 302 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Chhattisgarh  1  0  0  0  3 1 Telangana  0  1  2  0  0  1 Andhra Pradesh  1  0  1  0  1  0 Tamil Nadu  0  0  0  3  1  4 2014: Seven booked for sedition in Kerala for not standing up during national anthem 2016: JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar charged with sedition for allegedly raising anti-national slogans 2018: Activist Sudha Bhardwaj and others booked under various charges, including sedition and supporting Maoists; continue to be in jail 2020: Sedition charge slapped on Keralite journalist Siddique Kappan, who was on his way to Hathras to cover the Dalit gang-rape and murder case Source: NCRB 2014-2019 2014: 60 Kashmiri students in UP charged with sedition for cheering Pakistan in a cricket match; charges dropped later pressure on me and my family through abuses and death threats to fulfil his desire,” the girl’s father alleged. On Saturday night, the father approached the police. A case was soon registered under the provisions of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020. Violation of the code is punishable by a jail term of up to five years and a fine of `15,000. In case the victim is a minor, or someone from SC or ST, the jail sentence could stretch up to 10 years. Over 1 crore Covid-19 tests done in State AP reached the milestone on Sunday, when the number of active cases fell below 10,000 for the first time in about five months 5 70,000-75,000 crore tests conducted daily (on an average) approx population of AP 1,519 collection centres sample 100 per cent 9.67 lakh of tests to be RT-PCR by Dec 31, as per govt’s plan tests done in E Godavari dist, highest in State Viral watch 620 3,787 7 54,710 new new new cases recoveries deaths new tests 1,00,17,126 8,397 6,988 total samples tested active cases deaths 1,87,587 tests per million 8.66% 98.23% 0.81% positivity rate recovery rate mortality rate WITH THIS ISSUE THE ESSENTIAL CAMPUS DIGEST 28 PAGES, INCLUDING 16 OF edex (TABLOID) shah show in hyderabad Union Home Minister Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Hyderabad’s Warasiguda on Sunday as part of BJP’s campaigning for the December 1 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cooperation election | S Senbagapandiyan Minister for Transport and Information and Public Relations Perni Venkataramaiah Nani escaped unhurt after a man tried to attack him with a trowel at his residence in Machilipatnam on Sunday morning. The attacker, who is a mason, tried to assault the minister twice, but was overpowered by the latter’s gunmen and handed to the police. The attacker, Badugu Nageswara Rao, from Godugupet village of Machilipatnam mandal, was inebriated. A large number of people came to Machilipatnam from nearby villages to attend a memorial ceremony for Nani’s mother, who passed away re- cently and as the minister was , coming out of his residence, Nageswara Rao approached him and bent down to prostrate himself before the minister. However, he suddenly took out a trowel and tried to attack the minister. “In the first attempt, the weapon brushed by belt buckle. He then tried again, but I escaped. My gunmen and other staff caught him,” Nani said. The minister added that he had seen the attacker earlier on a couple of occasions during party-related functions, and was not aware of the reason behind the attack. “I am clueless as to why he tried to attack me. I do not have any enmity with anyone politically and personally,” Continued on P4 Nani said. New look 4 tanks to be renovated in Tirupati using Smart City funds E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirupati To add more attractions to the temple town, the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati has planned to beautify Gollavani gunta, Konkachenchaiah gunta, Koramenugunta and Poolavaani gunta in the city limits, and renovate canals and tanks. This will be done using Smart City funds. The Smart City board of Tirupati has granted adminis- tration sanction for the work. The Tirupati Smart City Corporation had sanctioned `11 crore for beautification of the city The Smart City board has . decided to develop the four tanks at a cost of `6 crore and construct a canal from Pentecost Church to Kothapeta at a cost of `5 crore. It also decided to build a drain to carry drainage from Leelamahal to Srinivasam, and has asked the civic body to ex- YOUR LIFE COACH Drunk mason tries to attack Nani with trowel West Bengal 24 1 1 04 Some prominent cases 2012: Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi booked for allegedly mocking national emblem in his cartoon; charges dropped after nationwide outrage any pre-condition,” the leaders said and likened the Burari ground to an open jail. “Instead of going to the ‘open jail’ in Burari, we have decided to lay siege to Delhi by blocking all five main entry points into the national Capital. As we have ration of four months, we are prepared for a long haul,” they said, adding no representative of any political party would be allowed to speak from their platform. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot sought to add pressure by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to reconsider the three new farm laws against which farmers are staging protests. Later, Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar got into a huddle at BJP president J P Nadda’s house to discuss the matter. Four vegetable markets to be set up in city The civic body proposed to set up four vegetable markets in the city using Smart City funds. While the first one, at Vaikuntapuram, in MR Palli, was inaugurated on November 23, the groundbreaking ceremong for two others was held on November 27. Work on the fourth one — to be set up at Balaji Colony — is expected to begin soon amine the feasibility of constructing a swimming pool at Vinayaka Sagar. Chittoor Collector and Smart City chairman Dr Narayana Bharath Gupta told officials to complete the work on a priority basis. The civic body had proposed to set up four vegetable markets in the city using Smart City funds. Of them, one market at Vaikuntapuram, in MR Palli, was inaugurated on November 23. The ground-breaking ceremony for two markets was held on November 27, and work on the fourth one — to be set up at Balaji Colony — is expected to begin soon. The vegetable market being constructed on Karkambadi Road will have about 120 shops with the latest technology sources said. , Fire of devotion Karthika deepam lit for Kapileswara Swamy on a hill on the occasion of Karthika Pournami in Tirupati on Sunday | madhav k